Joey Zasa

Joey Zasa (1944-19 September 1979) was the street boss of the Corleone crime family in New York City during the 1970s. By 1979, he had been entrusted with all of the family's illegal activities, and he attempted to wipe out The Commission in the "Atlantic City massacre", hoping to gain power and respect. However, he was ultimately assassinated at the Feast of San Gennaro parade in Little Italy.

Biography
Joey Zasa was born in New York City, New York in 1944 to a family of Italian descent, and he became a made member of the Corleone crime family during his youth. During the 1970s, he took over Frank Pentangeli's old crew and was awarded the Corleone business in New York with the approval of Don Michael Corleone and The Commission. He operated with the assistance of his personal enforcer, Anthony Squigliaro, and he became a popular mobster. Zasa was on the cover of The New York Times and was rated Esquire magazine's "Best-dressed Gangster," and he was known to hire African-Americans and Hispanics into his family. Zasa also founded the Antonio Meucci Foundation, an Italian-American civil rights organization that denied the existence of the Mafia and supported Italian-American causes. However, while Zasa claimed that he would kill anyone who sold drugs, it was alleged that his black and Hispanic associates pushed drugs on the streets on Little Italy, and the public attitude towards mobsters cooled.

Zasa was kept at arm length by Don Corleone, as Zasa was the only link that Corleone still had to the criminal underworld. Zasa was never treated as a boss in his own right, as he lacked the respect of The Commission. In 1979, Zasa joined Osvaldo Altobello and Licio Lucchesi's plot to thwart Corleone's acquisition of Internazionale Immobiliare in exchange for inheriting the Corleone family and becoming "boss of bosses" in New York. Zasa also had a rivalry with Corleone's nephew, Vincent Mancini, who bit off a chunk of Zasa's ear after Zasa called him a bastard.

In late 1979, Zasa attended a meeting of The Commission at the Palazzo Azzurro in Atlantic City, where he was the only mob boss to not be given shares in Corleone's Las Vegas casinos. Zasa complained, saying that he and his family had put in a lot of work to make money for the other families, and he stormed out of the meeting after declaring that Corleone was his enemy. Altobello followed him, ostensibly to reason with him, but, as the mobsters in the main room returned to chatting, a helicopter attacked the meeting. Almost all of the bosses were killed, but Corleone escaped with the help of Mancini and Al Neri.

Death
Corleone respected Zasa's actions, saying that it was natural for the new to overthrow the old, but the idle Corleone suffered from a diabetic stroke and was hospitalized. This left Al Neri and Connie Corleone in charge of the family, and they gave Mancini the go-ahead to whack Zasa.

On 19 September 1979, Zasa and his Meucci Foundation hosted the Feast of San Gennaro parade in Little Italy, raffling off a car. Zasa's bodyguards were distracted when Lou Pennino began to cut into the car's hood with a set of keys, and Squigliaro headed over to the car to confront Pennino. However, Squigliaro was then shot by a hooded hitman who was taking part in the religious procession, and Zasa's bodyguards were ambushed and killed. Zasa attempted to flee, banging on the door of a closed shop. It was then that Mancini, riding a horse and dressed as a mounted policeman, shot Zasa twice with a pistol, and Zasa slumped to the ground, dead.